Vigilance
by Decantate
Summary: The struggles of the Orlesian Wardens, starting before the Blight and continuing through the events of Awakenings.  A series of vignettes told out of chronological order.  Duncan/Sidona Andras.  Rating will go up.
1. Chapter 1

The pain overcame her. Sidona slipped into the Fade on her knees and the demon came for her on oiled steps that did not touch the cracked ground. She threw up her hands and a wall of magic shaped like twisting black smoke, gasping with the effort. The demon stopped.

"You will die," it said, and Sidona could taste its hunger on her tongue. "I will give you life."

"No," said Sidona, watching it through the tendrils of her magic. Everything was so much easier to see here, colors sharper, edges defined in a way that did not exist in the waking world. She never stumbled in the Fade. "I would give you life, and you would take mine."

The demon hesitated, then shifted around her. Sidona watched it, felt her face wet with tears and didn't even bother feeling ashamed. "I could… postpone that part of the bargain." When she did not speak, it continued. "I will give you life, teach you more powerful magic to ensure that you will survive longer, and I will not come to you again for years."

Still Sidona said nothing. She choked on a tiny sob once.

"I can fix your eyes, too, and give you sight," it said.

She couldn't be sure, but she thought that the way its face twisted was meant to be a smile. "When will you come for me?" she whispered.

"Oh, I will wait a _very_ long time. Until you are an old woman," said the demon in a soothing voice. "Until your forty-fifth year."

Sidona closed her eyes, more tears rolling down her cheeks. She felt sick, pain twisting up through her waist and into her mind. She was fifteen years old. She nodded, and awoke.

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_AN: Thanks to Ceylon for the impromptu beta work! She'll be collaborating on some of this, too!_


	2. Chapter 2

She sat at the edge of the circle of firelight, holding her knees tight to her bleating heart. Duncan tossed another log on the fire; sparks were thrown up to the sky, orange against white stars. It made the forest near Lake Celestine seem kinder, just as she thought it would, much better than the farmhold they'd left behind.

"So…"

She glanced at him through her white lashes. He was one of the younger Wardens, a friend of that Fereldan who had forced her to drink the cup. When she had refused to give her name, they called her a witch to tease her, but this Duncan had called her nothing.

"You didn't need to come," she said, chin on her knees. "I could have handled them myself."

"I know." He circled the flames and came to sit near her. She stiffened. He looked at the forest's shadows. "I thought it might be nice that, the first time you killed an innocent, you weren't so alone."

"You didn't need to do that." She watched the fire, watched a glowing line of heat trace along a crack in the bark. "The other Wardens call me a witch and yet you think that I am so innocent myself?"

"You are still innocent. Killing the tainted is like a mercy. Which means that you are merciful."

The glowing line finally snapped into flame the moment when Duncan moved her white hair and kissed the back of her bent neck. She shivered from the heat, then turned to meet his mouth, to draw him closer beside her.


	3. Chapter 3

"That's troubling." Duncan lurched out of sleep at Riordan's words and followed his friend's nod. One of the newest Wardens, the only woman, was shuddering a little in her sleep. Duncan squinted. She had some kind of black smoke leaking from behind her eyelids, swirling across her bedroll.

"Where did Didier find her?" he asked Riordan, voice soft.

"Outside of Val Chevin. We reached her before the Chantry could. She mangled the Templars they sent a few months ago, but look at her. She can't hide, not where people can see her." The men exchanged a look, then Riordan shrugged. "She was a terror in the deep roads."

Duncan leaned toward her. "I wouldn't…" cautioned his friend, but Duncan touched her shoulder anyway. She jerked back with a gasp and her eyes flew open, power gathering around her in dark streaks that puckered the air. His hand grew numb.

"We all have the nightmares at first," he told her, pulling his hand away. "What is your name?"

She stared at him, face blank, then closed her eyes and rolled over to face away.

Riordan shrugged again. "The darkspawn couldn't touch us with her around," he said. "Didier was right. We don't have enough mages."

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_AN: thanks to sagacious_rage for the beta work on this! And thank you all for your wonderful comments and support!_


	4. Chapter 4

She raked her heels up the back of his thighs and he lost control, grinding between her legs, feeling her heat through the rough cloth of his trousers. He made a mess of her ties, finally just jerking down the neckline of her robe enough to nip his way toward her breasts. She was quiet, panting, finally whimpering once when he had sucked one nipple to a point, and one-handed he shoved his trousers to his knees. Something hollowed in his chest when he slid into her, enough that he paused, sheathed in her tight—_Maker_, she was tight—he gave a long moan against her temple and began to move, linking his hands beneath her hips and lifting her to coax more whimpers from her throat.

Later he watched her, her head tipped a little away from him as she began to doze. The moonlight made her skin glow, picking out cleanly the spikes of her tattoos, but there were pine needles stuck into her white hair and they made her seem more like a person. He touched her cheek, his fingers dark, and she opened her eyes.

"Did you ever have a name?" He watched her gaze become grave and waited, sliding his fingertips to barely touch her chin.

"Why?" her voice was open enough to allow the bitterness in, but she glanced at him and he saw how her expression softened. He smiled at her, a foolish smile, and stroked his thumb over her chin, suppressing the urge to kiss her cheek.

"I was… I was called Sidona Andras."

He gave in, moved closer to her, and kissed her cheek. She looked up at him with her eyes still soft, trusting perhaps, and he kissed her mouth slow and gentle for the first time.

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_AN: A million thanks to jessica_jones for betaing this! and thanks to all of you for your patience on my brief Blood Ties hiatus. I have not abandoned it, I promise!_


	5. Chapter 5

"What about the girl in the back? Is she a Grey Warden also?" His Imperial Highness had a smirk balanced on his lips.

"Well, yes," answered the Commander, his voice deep and reserved. "She is our mage."

Sidona came out from behind Duncan when Didier waved his hand at her. She raised her chin, gave Emperor Florian her blank-eyed stare, and slid back the blue cowl that Duncan had given her, spilling her colorless hair. Duncan touched his hand to the small of her back. Florian's dark eyes drifted to her waist; his smile widened and the hand at her waist withdrew.

"I'll take her."

"But she is our mage!" Didier protested. "There are many Wardens more seasoned than her as well!"

"I have had enough of your pestering on this." Florian's voice was sharp and he snapped his hand at Didier. "If you want a Warden in my court so badly, fine, I will have this one. Or I will have none of you."

Didier bowed, and so did the other Wardens, but Sidona stood stiffly. She felt Duncan's bulk beside her as he straightened but she did not look at him.

"Of course, your Highness. She will still be needed for her duties, but we will trouble you no further."

"I would never dream of standing in the way of your noble order." Florian's voice was as smooth as the flat of a knife. He turned his face away from the Wardens, and Sidona felt them as they left, the small pull of their blood fading until it was only her own heartbeat that stung in her veins.

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_AN: Thank you, sagacious_rage, for betaing this! You are indeed the bomb! _


	6. Chapter 6

Sidona moved her fingers beneath the sheet, watching the shadows of the door through slitted eyes. Wood had moved on wood. She sent out blackness across the rug, to weaken any who came near, and held the next spell behind her lips.

The door's shadow widened. "It's me." She released her breath and dismissed her magic as Duncan eased the door shut behind him. He sighed and crossed the room to sit cross-legged against the floor, his back against the wall. She slipped from beneath the sheet, the straw in her mattress rustling, and went to him.

"I didn't think I'd find you in the bed," he said as she fit herself into his lap.

"I didn't know if they'd check in the morning."

He slid his hand over her hip in a comfortable way, rubbing the cloth of her shift. "A nightgown?" She tucked her head against his shoulder, her hair catching on his armor. She just nodded in reply, turning her face so that her closed eyes were pressed to the side of his throat.

"I'm not leaving you," he said. She pinched her eyes tighter against their sting and could feel her demon's touch from inside of them. She struggled quietly with it, forced it back, and as she did this Duncan said, "Don't do this again, Sidda. Talk to me," and lifted her up, laying her on the woven rug.

She took a breath and opened her eyes to the great shadow of him, moving above her, undoing buckles and sliding armor over his head, and then his warm skin was against her and he was kissing her. She held the back of his head with greedy hands and wound her legs around him.

"I'm not leaving you," he said again, lower now, near her ear, his beard scratching her cheek. "You'll be with us still."

He slid the loose nightgown further up and she helped him pull it away. His hands moved down to her hips, his thumbs in the hollows at the tops of her thighs, and she made a sound as he suckled her throat.

He pulled away, the night touching her skin where his warmth had left, but his hands—one held her knees apart, the other, the other's thumb just barely touched her opening, parting her slit.

She watched him, her breath growing quicker, and in the greys of the night she saw how he studied her, how he knelt back and stared, rapt, at the work of his thumb. His second thumb joined the first and he plunged both into her; her head fell back. He stretched her slowly apart, until she could feel a little cold air inside of her. Her wetness rolled down her skin; he caught it with the heel of his hand.

"_Duncan,"_ she whined, and his calm answer was, "I know," but still he held her open for his gaze as her ache grew, as she dreamed of his fingers filling her, more touch, _more_. He finally slid down on the floor and said, "I love you," just as he fastened his mouth above her opening.

He still held her spread but _Maker_ he had gotten so good at this. She dug her hands, her nails into the back of his head and ground herself against his face, making small sobbing noises. Her hips lifted from the floor, her heels banged against it, he scraped the rough back of his tongue against her most sensitive place and she came, clenching against his thumbs, his beard already soaked.

He raised his head after a moment as she lay there, gasping, twitches running down her legs, and she gave a rough whimper when he removed his thumbs. He crawled up her body, kissing her between her breasts once, but she pushed him to roll over and stretched over his body.

She licked his chest, salty and rough with hair, licked his nipple; when she straightened his hands pulled down on her hips until he was seated fully in her. She tightened against him as she rode him, watched his face, watched how his features twisted with his moan when he thrust hard upward. She ground against him a few more times until he shuddered and clenched his hands at her hips. "Stop," he said.

When she had her forehead rested on his chest, feeling his heart thump beneath her skin, she said, "I also love you," and he didn't answer.

Eventually she shivered. "Might as well get used to sleeping in a bed," he said as he sat up. "At least it's your own."

"I suppose." He pulled her down into it and on one side there was rough linen and rustling straw, but on the other there was Duncan, still a little sticky, so that wasn't so bad.

"You don't know how to read, do you?" He asked, his arm settling over her back.

"No," she said, surprised. "You do? When did you learn that?" She squirmed against him, sinking deeper into the mattress, and put her nose against his collarbone.

"Fiona taught me on the way to Weisshaupt. I should have taught you." His body heaved in a sigh beside her and she closed her eyes. "Someone in this palace will know, so learn how, and I'll write to you."

"Duncan." She pinched her eyes tighter. "You said…"

"I'll be back. You'll come with us too on occasion. Sidda." He pushed back her hair until her face tipped up, his eyes close to hers, faint gleams in the darkness beneath the blanket. "I had words with the Commander, but he's right. I've told you what I've seen. We'll need the army of Orlais. The Emperor thinks that by choosing you, he won't have to listen to the Wardens. If you let him get away with that then everyone will die."

"You're my friend," she said, but by her tone she said _I will do this._ He rubbed his finger along the side of her nose; she smelled herself on him.

"You're mine. So will you learn how to read?"

Sleep was sinking into her, tiredness and comfort along her ribs and her hips, and his breath in her ear so familiar from the nights in their tucked-together corners in Jader. Still, she answered him. "I will."

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_Thanks to valiasedai to betaing this! Now I have Duncan smut just like her. Finally I'm cool!_


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